Ep. 2098 - A SHOCKING Assassination

Summary

Summary of The Ben Shapiro Show - Episode 2098: "A SHOCKING Assassination"

In Episode 2098 of The Ben Shapiro Show, released on December 5, 2024, Ben Shapiro delves into a series of high-profile incidents and political controversies, focusing primarily on the assassination of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth's insurance arm. Shapiro offers a critical analysis of the left's response to these events, examines broader issues within law enforcement and governance, and discusses significant political maneuvers both in the United States and internationally.

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1. Assassination of Brian Thompson

Incident Overview: On Wednesday morning, Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth's insurance division, was fatally shot outside a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan at approximately 6:45 AM. Shapiro describes the attack as a "targeted assault," emphasizing its premeditated nature. Police reports confirm the presence of video evidence capturing the shooter multiple times firing at Thompson.

Details from Authorities: Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch provided insights into the incident, stating, "This does not appear to be a random act of violence" (01:19). She highlighted that Thompson was in New York City for an investor conference and that the suspect had been lying in wait, executing the attack with precision.

Shapiro’s Analysis: Shapiro elaborates on the professionalism of the attack, noting, "This was somebody who knew what they were doing, at least on a very basic level" (01:55). He underscores the failure of New York City's governance and law enforcement in preventing such violent acts, linking it to broader systemic issues.

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2. Left-Wing Response and Criticism

Anthony Zenkas’s Reaction: Shapiro criticizes Anthony Zenkas, a Columbia professor who labeled Thompson's assassination as a consequence of the broader problems within the American healthcare system. Zenkas tweeted, "Today we mourn the death of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company executives like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires" (04:16). Shapiro condemns this viewpoint as a "dramatic lack of understanding of not only markets but of morality."

Taylor Lorenz’s Commentary: Shapiro also targets Taylor Lorenz, a former Washington Post reporter, mocking her for misusing the term "raw dogging" in relation to public health behaviors. He states, "This person... clearly has a mental illness" (05:35), highlighting what he perceives as flawed narratives propagated by left-wing media personalities.

Broader Leftist Ideology: Shapiro argues that the far-left holds a belief system where individuals within undesirable systems deserve harm, thereby presenting a Venn diagram overlap between supporters of leftist ideologies and extremist groups like Hamas. He asserts, "For the left, it is all about the central moral principle. It is not about a utilitarian calculus" (25:10).

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3. Critique of New York’s Governance and Comparisons

Daniel Penney Case: Drawing parallels between Thompson's assassination and the Daniel Penney case, where Penney was charged for the death of Jordan Neely after intervening in a violent incident, Shapiro criticizes New York City's prosecution approach. He highlights the inconsistency in sentencing, noting, "This is another reason why violence is being propagated to an extraordinary extent in New York City these days" (05:35).

Prosecutor’s Stance: Prosecutor Daphna Yoran explains, "The more I learned about the defendant... that one should take into account the trauma of that individual" (04:16), which Shapiro interprets as undue leniency influenced by left-wing sympathies.

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4. Health Insurance System and Leftist Critique

Shapiro dismantles the left's critique of the American healthcare system, arguing that the backlash against companies like UnitedHealth ignores systemic issues. He states, "The system works how the system works and you can talk about changes to the system" (09:25). Shapiro emphasizes that criticizing insurance executives overlooks the government's significant role in healthcare, likening it to blaming Ralph for bread prices in a market-determined scenario.

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5. Nomination of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense

Controversies Surrounding Hegseth: Shapiro discusses the media's anonymous allegations against Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has publicly defended himself, stating, "I've been through a lot... The press is peddling anonymous story after anonymous story" (39:54). Shapiro criticizes the lack of concrete evidence supporting these claims, asserting that unverified accusations no longer sway public opinion as they did in the past.

Support within GOP: Despite the controversies, Shapiro notes strong backing for Hegseth within GOP circles, describing his potential to "completely revitalize the Department of Defense" (39:00). He predicts that without substantial evidence, the media's strategy will fail to derail Hegseth's nomination.

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6. International Political Developments

France’s Government Collapse: Shapiro briefly touches upon the political turmoil in France, where President Emmanuel Macron's government has fallen after a no-confidence vote. He critiques Macron’s alliance choices and the rise of Marine Le Pen's National Rally, suggesting that the collapse is a result of Macron's inability to balance political factions. Shapiro highlights the broader trend of labeling right-wing parties as "far right" across Europe, regardless of their actual policies.

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7. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Shapiro concludes by reiterating his concerns over left-wing ideologies influencing law enforcement and political processes. He underscores the importance of maintaining moral and utilitarian standards in governance, warning against the power dynamics that prioritize ideological conformity over justice and fairness.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jessica Tisch on the Assassination: “This does not appear to be a random act of violence.” (01:19)

• Anthony Zenkas’s Tweet: “Today we mourn the death of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company executives like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires.” (04:16)

• Tommy Veter on Hunter Biden’s Pardon: “Is Hunter the only one getting saved here?” (25:10)

• Pete Hegseth: “The press is peddling anonymous story after anonymous story, all meant to smear me and take me down.” (39:54)

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Timestamp Key:

• 01:19: Jessica Tisch elaborates on the premeditated nature of Thompson’s assassination.

• 04:16: Introduction of Anthony Zenkas’s critical tweet and Prosecutor Daphna Yoran’s statement.

• 05:35: Discussion on the Daniel Penney case and its implications.

• 09:25: Shapiro’s critique of the healthcare system and leftist narratives.

• 25:10: Analysis of left-wing ideology and its impact on political and legal systems.

• 31:14: Details on the Supreme Court hearing regarding transgender treatments.

• 39:00: Overview of Pete Hegseth’s defense against media allegations.

• 39:54: Pete Hegseth’s op-ed excerpt defending himself.

• 40:49: Shapiro’s remarks on the ongoing nomination process for Hegseth.

• 42:16: Final thoughts on Pete Hegseth’s nomination and GOP dynamics.

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This episode of The Ben Shapiro Show presents a critical examination of recent violent and political events, highlighting perceived failures in governance, media bias, and ideological conflicts within American politics. Shapiro's analysis underscores his conservative viewpoints, particularly in defense of law enforcement actions and skepticism toward left-wing critiques of corporate entities like UnitedHealth.

Transcript

[Ben Shapiro]

Well, folks, there was a shocking assassination on Wednesday in New York City. We're going to get into all the details and the left's bizarre response to this particular assassination. First, if you have not yet heard, DailyWire plus is 50% off right now. It's our best deal of the year. That is one full year of uncensored shows, exclusive series, documentaries and more. Don't wait. This deal ends soon. Head on over to dailywire.com cyberweek and join the fight today. So on Wednesday, the chief executive of UnitedHealth's insurance arm, according to the Wall Street Journal, was fatally shot outside a hotel in New York City. It was targeted attack. According to the police, there is in fact video of the attack. We're not going to show it here on the show because it's fairly graphic. This obviously appears to be a professional hit. The person who was killed, again, his name was Brian Thompson, who's the CEO of UnitedHealth. He is walking past the shooter. The shooter seems to emerge from the shadows, shoots him, shoots him again, calmly walks by him and appears to shoot him a third time. The suspect has not yet been identified, fled on foot after the shooting outside a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan around 6:45am apparently, the suspect rode an E bike to Central park and that's the last place that the suspect was seen. Police said that this was obviously a planned attack. They don't actually know why. Here was Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch explaining, this was not, in fact, a random act of violence.

[Jessica Tisch]

This does not appear to be a.

[Chase Strangio]

Random act of violence.

[Jessica Tisch]

The victim was in New York City to speak at an investor conference. It appears the suspect was lying in wait for several minutes. And as the victim was walking to the conference hotel, the suspect approached from behind and fired several rounds, striking the victim at least once in the back and at least once in the right calf. I want to be clear at this time, every indication is that this was a premeditated, preplanned, targeted attack.

[Ben Shapiro]

And clearly wasn't a robbery because the guy didn't even rifle the body. Apparently the gun jammed. You can actually see this happen in the video. The gun jams during the attack and the shooter then proceeds to rack the slide in order to clear the jams. This is somebody who knew what they were doing, at least on a very basic level. And apparently if you just get away with it, then this person had this planned out pretty well, apparently. Paulette Thompson, his wife, told NBC News there had been some threats against Brian Thompson. She said, basically, I don't know, lack of coverage I don't know details. I know that he said there were people that, that had been threatening him. The United Health Group is one of the biggest companies in America. It includes the biggest American health insurer as well as doctor groups and other assets as well. And Thompson was the CEO of the insurance unit, which is called UnitedHealthcare. The company appeared to remove profiles of his executives from the website following the attack. The UnitedHealth CEO of the overall company, not just the insurance branch, said in a video message to employees, brian was a truly extraordinary person who touched the lives of countless people throughout our organization and far beyond. It's a terrible tragedy. Now, there are a number of things to be said about this. Obviously, number one, New York City is governed horribly. When you're having assassinations in public places in New York City, that goes to the way that law enforcement is deployed. What law enforcement is allowed to do. When you have violence that has become commonplace on New York streets, that goes to governance. And simultaneously, as this is happening, the jury is still out in the case of Daniel Penny. Daniel Penny, of course, is the Marine veteran who took down a crazed drug abuser named Jordan Neely on the New York subway as Jordan Neely was threatening other members of the public in this subway car. And you'll recall that Daniel Penney put Jordan Neely in a submission hold and Jordan Neely later died because of that. Supposedly it was because of the submission hold. It also could have been because of the drugs in his system or his reaction to, to the lack of air to the brain. The bottom line is that that is clearly not a manslaughter or murder charge. New York City is bringing that charge anyway because the city is governed horribly. Here, for example, is the lead Daniel Penney prosecutor, a person named Daphna Yoran, who is such a left winger that while she is prosecuting Daniel Penny for the great crime of standing up to potential violence on the subway system, she is bragging about a light sentence that she went to pursue for a thug who killed an 87 year old.

[Jessica Tisch]

I had a murder case where the defendant did not intentionally kill the victim. He went into an ATM on the Upper west side and tried to rob an individual. Unfortunately, it was an older individual. He was 86. And in the course of the robbery, he fell to the ground and as a result, he died. This is under the law, a felony murder, which is akin to intentional murder. However, when I first got the case, I learned. I took the time to learn about the defendant and it was a strong case. So it wasn't about who done it. I knew immediately who did it. I could prove it. I could take it to trial that day and when it. But it wasn't about that. It was that the more I learned about the defendant and his life and the circumstances, the kinds of things that Jerrel was talking about, that one should take into account the trauma of that individual. I really felt incredibly sorry for him that he had gotten to that point in his life where he felt like there was no other choice but to commit this robbery.

[Ben Shapiro]

So this, of course, is crazy. And it's precisely this kind of approach to law enforcement in which a person who robs an 86 year old, 87 year old man and the 86 year old, 87 year old man is knocked to the ground and dies. The person who does that is given a light sentence by a prosecutor. But a person who's defending the public from an actual criminal is charged with manslaughter in New York City. That's just another reason why violence is being propagated to an extraordinary extent in New York City these days. And not a shock. By the way, in terms of updates on the Daniel Penney case, jurors have been in deliberations for a couple of days. At this point, they've asked to rehear a couple of pieces of evidence in that case, including testimony given by the medical examiner who suggested that no matter how much fentanyl had been found in Jordan Neely's system, she still would have blamed Daniel Penney for the death of Jordan Neely. So we'll see how the jury comes down in that case. But this is just another reason why, again, violence has become relatively commonplace in New York City. But there's something else that's going on here, too, and that is the left wing reaction to the murder of Brian Thompson. So there's a person whose name is Anthony Zankas. Anthony Zenkas is apparently a professor at Columbia. Anthony Zenkas. And this person, again, amazing. This person teaches at Columbia and calls himself a trauma expert. Anti violence commie is, in his description, a communist who's against violence. He put out a tweet saying, quote, today we mourn the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Gunned down. Wait, I'm sorry. Today we mourn the death of the 68,000Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company executives like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires. So that would be basically, he deserved to die because UnitedHealthcare is a mildly profitable company. When I say they're a Mildly profitable company. I mean, when it comes to the health insurance industry, the profit margin is generally below 2%. You're not talking about industries where the Profit margin is 10, 15, 20%. You have a lot of problems with American health insurance and how that is run. That is because of the legal structure that has been set up for health insurance in America. And we can talk about all the fixes that need to happen, how the truth is that health insurance should not be tied to employment. About the fact that you should be able to opt into various levels of health insurance rather than basically being shoveled into one of a few categories. We could talk about the fact that an enormous amount of health care should actually be provided just on a pay for play basis as opposed to via insurance. It's bizarre that in order to, for example, just go get a normal checkup that should be covered by insurance, what are you insuring against? That's typically not what insurance is for. Insurance is for an unexpected situation that you are betting might happen. And the insurance company is making the bet that it probably won't happen, or at least not in the timeframe that you're talking about is why you have, for example, fire insurance. It's not because you know tomorrow you're going to set your house on fire. That'd be arson and it would violate your insurance policy. It's bizarre that health insurance in the United States works such that it is called insurance when in reality it's just a kind of subsidized form of group coverage. But in any case, you can have whatever arguments you want with the system. The idea that because you don't like this system, the CEO of a private healthcare company deserves to die. Or at least it is his fault if 68,000Americans, quote, unquote, needlessly die each year so that he can become a multimillionaire. That shows a dramatic lack of understanding of not only markets, but of morality. Taylor Lorenz, who It is unbelievable. This person was once considered a well respected reporter at the Washington Post. She clearly has a mental illness. I mean, there's something very, very wrong with Taylor Lorenz on a wide variety of levels. Taylor Lorenz recently suggested, for example, that there was a major problem in the United States with people, quote, unquote, raw dogging the air. This person was a reporter for the Washington Post just a couple of days ago, quote, planning a Covid safe book launch took months and thousands of my own dollars ensuring testing outdoor space, far UV lights and a litany of other precautions. Meanwhile, you dumb Fs are out raw dogging the air. I'm pretty sure that's not what raw dogging means. And spewing your disease laden breath all over your elderly neighbors. We are not the same. Okay, so this person who again was a well respected. I'm just going to emphasize that again you wonder why the legacy media are a flaming dumpster fire. This person was a well respected journalist at the Washington Post who spent her days tracking down bad things on the Internet and then going after people on the right. So this week she has talked about the evils of raw dogging the air and also the apparent good of murdering people in public because they work for companies that you don't like. Quote, people have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering. Now that's not, that's not true. You might not agree with how the insurance companies run their business. You might think that the insurance companies go too far in attempting to restrict coverage or to find loopholes in their policies that prevent them from having to cover things. Okay, that's what insurance does. That's what insurance companies are. Again, what you're really criticizing is the system. 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That's joinbuilt.com Ben the system of private health insurance in the United States is a bizarre amalgam of government subsidies. Nearly all healthcare coverage in the United States is in some form or fashion government involved. Even private healthcare systems are heavily government regulated. Very, very strongly. Okay, but that is not United Healthcare's fault. That is like suggesting that if Ralph's prices bread at a particular level because the markets have determined that there's just that much bread available and then people can't afford that bread, that that's somehow Ralph's fault. The system works how the system works and you can talk about changes to the system, we should Obamacare has been a bad thing for the system, I believe in general. But the idea that if you work for a private healthcare insurance company that you should be murdered is pretty astonishing, she says. As someone against death and suffering, I think it's good to call out this broken system and the people in power who enable it. I have a question. Why is he the one who enables it? Really? Why is he the one who enables it? I wasn't aware that Brian Thompson was a public policy professional working in an arena in which consent was not actually the keystone. Meaning if you don't want to buy healthcare insurance via United, don't do it, or don't work for a company that does do it. But you have to understand that for people on the left, this says something deeper about the left. Here's the deeper thing it says about the far left, and it's a reason why there is a Venn diagram that looks like a circle between people who are fine with Brian Thompson getting murdered on the street and people who are pro Hamas. It's an actual circle. Why? Because the baseline belief of the left's system, these days, at least the far left, is that if you are working within a system that they have deemed morally inferior, you deserve to die. You do. And if someone kills you, well, you probably had it coming. I can only imagine that's why Taylor Lorenz has spent the rest of the day putting out posts at bluesky, which is this dumb alternative to Twitter in which she actually posts the pictures of other healthcare CEOs. So, again, the premise of the left is if you work within a system that they do not like, you deserve to die. You are a kulak and you deserve to die. If you work within a system that they deem morally praiseworthy, or you're a member of a quote unquote, morally praiseworthy group, you can literally do anything. So if your grievance is in the view of the left in any way legitimate, then you can do anything. This is the same group of people who will suggest, for example, that if you don't like the situation in the Gaza Strip that now justifies you in raping women and murdering babies, this is the left's full scale belief system, at least on the far left, and this is a perfect example of it playing out. Now, what's amazing about this is that the way that the left adjudicates whether a system is morally praiseworthy or morally blameworthy is not, in fact, based on a utilitarian calculus. So that professor from Columbia who suggested that the private health care system in the United States is responsible for 68,000 deaths or whatever is the number that he is spewing, he doesn't actually believe that if you work for an alternative healthcare system that is government run and it kills more people that you then deserve to die. He doesn't believe that because it isn't actually about a utilitarian calculus for what's best for humanity. For the left, it never is. For the left, it is all about the central moral principle. It is not about a utilitarian calculus. They're not angry at private health insurance because private health insurance supposedly makes people worse off. If we had a nationalized healthcare system in the United States that had severe shortages, that had healthcare rationing, that had major problems with taking people with severe illness, which all the way. All that. That I just said is all true of the National Health Service in Great Britain, for example. It's wildly expensive, it's bankrupting the country, the quality of the healthcare is poor, particularly if you have significant health problems. You have to wait online for basic health procedures. But you never hear the left complaining about the utilitarian calculus there. It's not about the human beings affected by the system. That is a lie. That is a facade. The thing they actually care about is power and control. If the left controls the system, the system is good. If the left does not control a system, the system is bad. And if you are a member of that system, then maybe, just maybe, you deserve to die. It's all a power game. If you're a prosecutor and you see a good Samaritan on the street trying to stop a violent act on a subway, that person who tried to stop the violent act is bad because that person is not of your political ilk. They're not part of the team. And so that means that person ought to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Meanwhile, if a person actually commits a felony murder, if that person is a member of your team, well, then you do your best to let that person off the hook. Because it's all team sport. It's all team sport. And the subjugation of basic liberal principle by left wing principle is perfectly obvious here. It's the great untold story of the last several decades in American politics. It used to be that liberals in this country were people that you or I, as a conservative, might disagree with on tax policy, on healthcare policy. But as I've said literally my entire career, there's a difference between a liberal and a leftist. A liberal would never argue that because you work for United Healthcare, you ought to die. Maybe you ought to be shot. That's not something a traditional liberal would ever suggest. They might say the system has problems. They might say that this company needs to be run better. They might object to that particular CEO. They would never argue that person ought to be morally dispensed with, just shot on the street. In the way that you're hearing from some of these members of the radical left, they wouldn't say that that takes a left wing point of view, because for the left wing, for people who are truly on the left, not just liberals who disagree about the various uses of the government or what government can or should do, but who actually believe that all dynamics are power dynamics, and the only thing that matters is that your allies control the government gun for those people, murder is one of the things that is just part and parcel of the system. Sometimes to cook the left wing omelet, you have to break a few eggs. And you're seeing that more and more from the traditional liberal wing of the Democratic Party is this sort of power dynamics are central to everything. Perfect example of this comes today. So Joe Biden and his team are now leaking that they are considering the possibility of preemptive pardons for pretty much everybody associated with the Biden administration. Now, the way that they are painting this is in a. Is in a quote, unquote, principled, liberal way. What they're saying is they are afraid that the Trump administration is going to come in and politicize the Justice Department and go after Biden officials. Therefore, they have to preemptively strike and pardon everybody. Now, do you find that plausible? I don't find that particularly plausible. The reason I don't find that plausible is because it was the left wing of the Democratic Party that decided that now that they had power, they were going to initiate prosecutions of pretty much everybody they didn't like, ranging from Donald Trump directly to pro lifers who are protesting in unapproved places, to other members of conservative constituencies, like school board members who they didn't particularly like, like parents. They were going to target all these people using the positions of power, not because they believed in principled ways that certain people were guilty of crimes, but because they believed that certain people had to be got and the law was as good a method of any. And so what you're watching right now is that in action. I don't actually think this is a preemptive strike directed against the Trump administration coming in and politicizing law enforcement. I think this is precisely what it appears to be, which is the left wing of the Democratic Party and Joe Biden now creating a new standard where if you are a friend of Joe, you get a blanket pardon. That's what the Hunter Biden thing was. Remember, he did not pardon Hunter Biden. Of the crimes for which Hunter Biden was charged, he didn't commute the sentence, which he certainly could have done for Hunter Biden. Instead, he gave him a blanket pardon for a full scale 10 year period for anything and everything. He gave me get out of jail free card that covered every. That's not a preemptive strike, folks. That is just a you're my friend, you get special benefits thing. That's what's happening right here. Apparently now Joe Biden wants to consider doing that for pretty much all of the people allied with him. According to Politico, Joe Biden's senior aides are conducting a vigorous internal debate over whether to issue preemptive pardons to a range of current and former public officials who could be targeted with President Elect Donald Trump's return to the White House. According to senior Democrats familiar with the discussions, Biden's aides are deeply concerned about a range of current and former officials who could find themselves facing inquiries and even indictments. A sense of alarm which has only accelerated since Trump last weekend announced the appointment of Cash Patel to lead the FBI. Those White House officials are carefully weighing the extraordinary step of handing out blanket pardons to those who've committed no crimes, both because it could suggest impropriety only fueling Trump's criticisms, and because those offered preemptive pardons may in fact reject them. So who exactly are they worried about? Well, they might give a preemptive blanket pardon for all possible crimes on the federal level to Senator Elect Adam Schiff from California, as well as former GOP Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming. Others mentioned include Anthony Fauci, who almost certainly committed perjury with regard to gain of function research before the United States Senate. Apparently the West Wing deliberations have been organized by White House counsel Ed Siskel, but include a range of other aides, including Chief of Staff Jeff Zients. The president himself has not been brought into the broader pardon discussions that I love that Joe Biden is so out of it. He is so not part of this conversation. He's not even a part of the conversation about what kind of pardons he should be issuing. But make no mistake, this is Democrats changing the rules of the game yet again. They changed the rules of the game to let Hunter Biden off the hook for everything and anything. And now they want to change the rules of the game so as to issue preemptive blanket pardons to all of their friends and allies. Well, the Democrats change the rules pretty routinely. But one thing that never changes, the natural disasters are a reality. They are in fact a reality. From the Maui fires to Hurricane Helene and Milton, we are seeing catastrophic disasters take out entire towns with minimal warning, resulting in lack of basic resources. Again, we're all wired to think it can't happen here. And then in a blink you might be in survival mode. Being prepared in advance is your best defense against the unexpected. 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But in any case, here, for example, was Tommy Veter of Pod Save America ripping into Joe Biden for the Hunter Biden pardon.

[Tommy Veter]

Everyone looks stupid. Everyone looks like they're full of. And Republicans are going to use this to argue that it was politics as usual when Democrats warned about Trump's corruption or threat to the rule of law or, you know, the threat to democracy. And I think that's the piece of this I am most frustrated with, which is Joe Biden looking like a typical lying politician. And I think that leads to a cynical feeling that all politicians are bad and they're all the same and that this is just par for the course. Hunter's pardon is expansive here. It covers goes back a decade. So the right winger, as I listen to Ben Shapiro this morning, like they're all saying what this shows is that Joe Biden was in on the take the whole time that he was getting money from Hunter's business dealings because he pardoned this decade's worth of time. And now I think Joe Biden damaged his own reputation in service of doing something understandable on a human level for his son. And he also part, you know, damaged the Democratic Party's reputation. And the question I have is, is Hunter the only one getting saved here?

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, well, that last part there is the part that's amazing. Is Hunter the only one getting saved here is the implication that everybody should get saved from what? For what crimes? Again, the Democratic argument is going to be we have to use this nuclear option because otherwise Trump is going to use his nuclear option. Or maybe there's something else going on here, which is if you've got the power and you're a Democrat, you wield it no matter what. And that seems to be the order of the day. That seems to be the rule of the day. Again, Democrats were perfectly willing to kill the filibuster if they had won the Senate, if they'd won the Senate and the presidency, they would have killed the filibuster. They made no bones about this. For them, power is merely a tool for people who are normal in politics. Normal liberals, normal conservatives. The powers of the government don't change based on who's in power. It is only for what purpose those powers are used. One of the ways that you can tell whether somebody is a postmodernist in their politics is whether they believe that the powers delegated to the federal government expand based on who is in control of the government. If it does, I get to expand my power radically. If it's them, I restrict the power radically. That is a problem. It is a real problem in American politics. It's a real problem in global politics as well. It turns out there's still a standard of right and wrong when it comes to this sort of stuff. But increasingly, when it comes to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, that is no longer the case. Liberals are being supplanted by the leftists. In fact, Sean Penn, who is, as we all know, a fool, he praised Hunter Biden. He called him one of the finest people I know, and he urged Joe Biden to squeeze in more pardons. He says, quote, it ain't January yet. I hope that it is also in President Biden's intentions to offer an ongoing concerted focus on people who have been wrongfully charged, overcharged where the extenuating circumstances have not been fairly considered, and that there will be many more pardons that are better for the world than leaving people to toil in prison. It's all power politics all the way down. Which brings us to the Supreme Court. So yesterday at the Supreme Court, there was a hearing in a case called US vs SCT. This particular case is one the Daily Wire has a bit of a stake in, because obviously Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire has done heavy lifting in what is a woman, particularly in the state of Tennessee, with regard to preventing the transing of the children in the state of Tennessee. So Tennessee passed a state law that banned the transing of the kids. And then a federal lawsuit was filed by the ACLU in an attempt to suggest that there is in fact a 14th Amendment argument that small children must be given cross sex hormones or this is sex discrimination. That is the argument that was being made yesterday in US vs Scotty, the US solicitor general under Joe Biden, who is trying to argue in favor of striking down the Tennessee law. They argue the Tennessee law discriminates by Sex and transgender status, violating the equal protection of the laws. The feds argue, quote, a teenager whose sex assigned at birth is male can be prescribed testosterone to conform to a male gender identity, but a teenager assigned female at birth cannot. That is a wild argument. Again, it has nothing to that is sort of like suggesting that it is sex discrimination to suggest that if a male has cancer of the prostate, he can have his prostate removed, but a female who has anal cancer can't have her prostate removed because she doesn't have a prostate. What are you talking about? These are different. These are different diagnoses for different conditions. It's an absurdity. Now, again, a lot of this confusion was created by the terrible ruling in Bostock in 2020 which suggested that the Civil Rights act, when it banned employment discrimination by sex, that also included discrimination based on the idea that if a boy walks in and says he's a girl, that you could fire him based on that. But somehow that's what the Civil Rights act was meant to protect against. That, of course, is incredibly silly. But what is this in the end, what is this entire argument about? It's about a power game. It's about a power game in a couple of ways. One, the left doesn't believe that men can become women. They don't. They're lying if they say they do. No one believes this. No one. Even the greatest advocates don't believe this. Instead, it is a power game. It is designed to get you to say the thing. You will be made to care. You will be made to repeat the phraseology. This is not a right to privacy. This is a right to publicity issue. It's a right to be treated in a way that you believe everyone else should treat you, even if it violates those other people's rights. That's what this is all about. And even violating the rights of minors, it's a power game. Chase Strangio, who that is the name of the transgender man, meaning a woman who works for the ACLU and was the attorney on behalf of the ACLU before the Supreme Court is making this argument. Again, this is man. It is amazing. This is what we have come to in America. We have to have Supreme Court arguments over whether these states should be able to prohibit the genital mutilation and hormonal destruction of children. Here's Chase Strangio again. This person is a lawyer before the Supreme Court defending sex changes for two year olds.

[Chase Strangio]

Nobody has to provide this medication to adolescents. These are not doctors being forced to provide medication. These are doctors who are wanting to treat their patients in the best way that they know how based on the best available evidence to us. And these are young people who may have known since they were two years old exactly who they are, who suffered for six, seven years before they had any relief. And what's happening here, it's not the kids who are consenting to this treatment. It's the parents who are consenting to the treatment. And as a parent, I would say we. When our children are suffering, we are suffering. And these are parents who love their children, who are listening to the advice of their doctors of the mainstream medical community and doing what's right for their kids. And the state of Tennessee has displaced their judgment.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah, just ridiculous. Okay, this person is obviously female. You can listen to the voice. I have a pretty high voice for a dude that's a lady. But we're all supposed to pretend that that's actually a man and that it is a functional good for the state to facilitate surgeries and hormone treatments that would. That would make this more common for confused kids. Well, some of the Supreme Court justices were having nothing to do with this yesterday. The audio is available from Supreme Court hearings, but the video is not. That's just the way that it works over there. Justice Samuel Alito asked some pretty basic questions that destroyed the government's case. He asked, for example, about whether sex changes reduce suicide because the data show that they do not, actually, which is the chief argument that has been used by the state as well as by trans advocates to argue for why children should be given these sorts of horrific, barbaric treatments. So he says, well, where's the data that shows that these treatments actually reduce suicidal ideation? And the answer is, there are none. On page 195 of the cast report, it says there is no evidence that.

[Jessica Tisch]

Gender affirmative treatments reduce suicide.

[Chase Strangio]

What I think that is referring to is there is no evidence in the studies that this treatment reduces completed suicide. And the reason for that is completed suicide, thankfully and admittedly is rare. And we're talking about a very small population of individuals with studies that don't necessarily have completed suicides within them. However, there are multiple studies, long term, longitudinal, longitudinal studies that do show that there is a reduction in suicidality, which I think is a positive outcome to this treatment.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, so that would be a distinction without much of a difference there from Chase Estrangio trying to split hairs. The reality is that the data don't exist on this point at all. Alito then went further and fully destroyed the entire logic. He pointed out that the 14th Amendment is meant to prevent discrimination on the basis of immutable characteristic. Immutable characteristic would be like race. If you're a black person, you can't become a white person. You're still going to be black no matter how many times you say you're white, he says. Well, when it comes to gender, that's clearly not an immutable characteristic. Under the 14th amendment.

[Jessica Tisch]

Are there individuals who are born male, assigned male at birth, who at one point identify as female but then later come to identify as male, and likewise for individuals who are assigned female at birth, at some point identify as female.

[Ben Shapiro]

I'm sorry, identify as male but later.

[Jessica Tisch]

Come to identify as female? Are there not such people?

[Chase Strangio]

There are such people. I agree with that.

[Ben Shapiro]

Justice so it's not an immutable characteristic? Well, duh, of course, not an immutable characteristic. But this argument was never about the principle of the matter, ever. It's all about a power game in which the entire body politic and in fact all of humanity is forced to abide by a false construction of reality because that's what the left wants. The left wishes that humanity were all a bunch of interchangeable widgets that they could mold at will. And if that's not true, we'll just pretend that it's true and we will mutilate kids in order to accomplish this. That is the logic of the left on these issues. I mean Sonia Sotomayor, who is by far the dumbest person on the Supreme Court of the United States. There are some other candidates, but Sonia Sotomayor is unique in her level of stupidity on the Supreme Court. Yesterday she compared the hormonal treatment of teenagers and pre teenagers to them having aspirin. They cannot eliminate the risk of detransitioners.

[Jessica Tisch]

So it becomes a pure exercise of.

[Ben Shapiro]

Weighing benefits versus risk. And the question of how many minors have to have their bodies irreparably harmed for unproven benefits is one that is best left.

[Jessica Tisch]

I'm sorry, Counselor, Every medical treatment has a risk. Even taking aspirin. There is always going to be a percentage of the population under any medical treatment that's going to suffer a harm.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, so you are now comparing Sonia Stuttmeyor taking aspirin to having your genitals chopped off as a 15 year old, your breasts chopped off. She's neither a good doctor nor a good lawyer, as it turns out. In just a second we'll bring you the updates on the possible nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. I say possible because seems to be a little bit fraught lately. First, only a few days left to join the fight and save 50%. If you've ever thought about joining DailyWare plus, now would be the time. Right now, new annual memberships are half price. It is our best deal of the year. That is one full year of uncensored daily shows with limited ads, groundbreaking documentaries and hit movies like Am I Racist? Series, including Dr. Jordan B. Peterson's the Gospels, along with our entire entertainment catalog. Plus, you get unlimited access to menkey, our kids app packed with content that reflects your values. Already a member, give the gift of DailyWire plus this holiday season at 50% off. This deal ends soon. Go to DailyWire.com cyberweek right now and join the fight. Meanwhile, hot controversy over Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of defense. Now he is defending himself, as well he should. An enormous amount of material that is now being submitted into the public spaces about Pete Hegseth, about alleged drunkenness or alleged improprieties with women, is being done anonymously. Virtually no one is willing to go on the record about Pete Hegseth and this is supposed to scuttle him? That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. You have to have a higher burden of proof than anonymous. Sources say somebody needs to make the accusation so that the particulars can either be rebutted or not. So Pete Hegseth has now put out an op ed over at the Wall Street Journal saying, quote, I faced fire before, I won't back down now. He says, quote, I've been through a lot. Combat tours, job changes, divorces and family challenges. Yes, I love my mom very much and she loves me. I've always led with honesty, integrity and passion. Tragically, many veterans never find the purpose for their next chapter and succumb to the bottle, depression, or worst of all, suicide. I understand what they're facing because I've lived it. By the grace of God. I took another path. My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has renewed and restored my life. I am saved by his grace. The press is peddling anonymous story after anonymous story, all meant to smear me and take me down. It's a textbook manufactured media takedown. They provide no evidence, no names. They ignore the legions of people who speak on my behalf. They need to create a bogeyman. And because they believe I threaten their institutional insanity, that is the only thing they are right about. Well, he's right about that. I mean, we've gone through the allegations. The allegations are either scanty or anonymous or both. Some of the allegations have Been trotted out are a letter that Pete Hegseth's mom sent him seven, eight years ago talking about how he needed to be better. It's the women in his life, which, by the way, that's pretty rough stuff to be dumping out there in public view now. Letters from mothers to sons and such. I mean, seriously, people. Well, Pete Hegseth's mom was out defending him in the media yesterday. Here's what she had to say. You say it's important that people know the truth. Is there some part of that story that has been depicted in the media that is not true?

[Chase Strangio]

Oh, of course. Which part? You know, he's. He's. I don't want to use the words, but he doesn't misuse women. No. And I want people to look at Pete, judge people, or understand him for who he is today and to disregard the media. That was seven years ago, and most of it is misinformation. But Pete is a new person. He's redeemed, forgiven, changed. I think we all are after seven years.

[Ben Shapiro]

Again, the fact that. So there's a game that's played here. Anonymous accusation, accusations that bring forward something that his mom said about him. His mom comes forward to rebut, and then everybody's like, hey, you had to call your mom. You made his mom the issue. While Pete went on with Megyn Kelly yesterday to defend himself, she asked him about the accusations. Here's what he had to say.

[Tommy Veter]

First of all, I've never had a drinking problem. No one's ever approached me and said, oh, you should really look at getting help for a drink. Never. I've never sought counseling, never sought help. I respect and appreciate people who do. But, you know, what do guys do when they come back from war? Oftentimes have some beers. Thank God. By the grace of God, I found my chapters of purpose that pulled me out of that.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, now, good for him for saying that sort of stuff he says. Also, listen, I don't owe the media answers. I owe senators answers. Presumably, they're the ones who are going to be doing the advice and consent process here. He was with Meghan.

[Tommy Veter]

I don't answer these questions to the hyenas in the hallway trying to chirp at my wife and I as we walk down the hallway. I don't owe them an answer. I owe an answer to the members of the United States Senate who are going to vote for a confirmation here.

[Ben Shapiro]

So we'll see how this all plays out. There have been rumors that Trump is considering some other possibilities. People like Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa or Governor Ron DeSantis from Florida. Maybe that's true, maybe that's not. But the bottom line is, at this point, I have not seen sufficient evidence for why Pete Hegseth should not be Secretary of Defense. I think he would completely revitalize the Department of Defense. I think that he would come in and he would clean house, which is, as he says, probably the thing that they are most afraid of. And we are now living in a post Kavanaugh era where simply accusing people of impropriety anonymously isn't gonna do it anymore. You actually have to show proof. You have to show why Pete Hegseth should not be Secretary of Defense. Now, maybe he can't get there with the votes. That's possible. We'll find out. But from the reports that are being made publicly that are all anonymous in nature and that very often contradict some of the public record, I'm not seeing it, certainly as of yet. Obviously, the wide level of support that Pete has in the commentariat, I think, speaks to what many of us think of Pete, which is quite highly GOP Senator Bill Hagarty, who's one of the people who's been considered as a possible replacement, supposedly, he says that House members gave Pete Hagseth a standing ovation when he visited the Hill. Well, I'd say this. I was just with Pete meeting with a large group of House members, and he had an ovation that was resounding. I think that Pete is, as people get to know him again, as people get to see his deliberation, his deliberate stance on trying to repair the Pentagon, to try to fix our recruiting crisis.

[Jessica Tisch]

Our retention crisis, I think people are.

[Ben Shapiro]

Overwhelmingly supportive of, and I think that's going to continue to move in the right direction. Momentum is with Pete right now. I think that that is correct. I think that's correct. So, again, we'll see how the math plays out. But the sort of strategy of dump the kitchen sink on whomever the nominee is and don't provide any specific, credible evidence of accusations that would bring him down, I think that that is not a winning strategy for the media anymore. I think that era is now over. Now, with all of that said, one of the things that I think has been a mistake by President Trump in nominating a variety of these people is not the nominees themselves. It's the problem that he has actually wiped out several House members from the House Republican Caucus. And this is something that Republicans are gonna have to keep in mind. President Trump right now might have a House majority of one, which would be the smallest House majority in decades. It's either gonna be one or two seats. So again, 220 seats. That means no one can get sick, it means no one can be out of town for a vote, and it means nobody can dissent. Historically small House majority. It wouldn't have been that small if not for the fact that there are now several vacancies. Those vacancies were created by President Trump picking a bunch of House members out of the House and trying to bring them into the administration. That's kind of a problem. Practically speaking, the GOP majority could be as thin as 217 to 215. That would be the same as the smallest ever 1917 to 1919. Congress and a lot of members of the House team were pretty upset at the reduction in the House majority. We'll see how that plays in terms of actually being able to negotiate the kinds of major legislation that President Trump needs to push forward. We'll get to more on this in a second. But first, as a potential homebuyer, you've likely been waiting on the sidelines through some challenging times. 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They even have programs to help you compete with cash offers. With rates trending down, this could be your moment. Churchillmortgage.com Shapiro Tell your loan officer I sent you. You'll be in good hands. This is a paid advertisement. Homebuyer edge and seller guarantee are available for qualifying borrowers and select loan types only. Not available in all states or locations and MLS ID1591mlsconsumeraccess.org/housing lender 1-749 Mallory Lynn Brentwood, TN 37027 Meanwhile, chaos has broken out in France. Another French government has now fallen after the national assembly approved a no confidence vote. So, and this is not a giant shock, the French national assembly has been split among a wide variety of parties for a while now. Emmanuel Macron's party, he's the President of France, the Prime Minister, his role is a lot more ceremonial than the president. The President has a longer term and has more power, but his government, meaning his workable majority in the National Assembly, Macron's, has now broken down. And that, of course, is because Macron had effectively sided against Marine Le Pen's National Rally and instead had decided to side with the actual far left Socialists led by Jean Louis Melchon, who's an insane person, like a total rabid crazy person, a Bernie Sanders style, Jeremy Corbyn style nutjob. And so because of that, when the left turned against him in the national assembly, he couldn't count on the right to back his play. And so now the government has fallen apart because it turns out that the, quote unquote, moderate right in France, which the Macron regime was supposed to represent, would rather side with the socialists than side with the actual right in France. According to the Wall Street Journal, Macron's attempt to ward off the rise of Marine Le Pen's far right National Rally by calling snap elections this summer, saddled the country with a hung parliament. The national assembly, which is divided between Macron loyalists, Le Pen's ranks and an unruly alliance of left wing parties, splintered over its first order of business, approving the government budget for 2025. Le Pen and leftist lawmakers backed the no confidence motion after the Prime Minister, who is a person named Michel Barnier. Michel Barnier had proposed 60 billion euros, equivalent to about $63.1 billion in spending cuts and tax increases. That budget was attempting to narrow the French deficit. The left opposed it, so did the far right. And when I say far right, I just mean the right. National Rally is not really a far right party anymore. There is a. Every time there's a right wing party, it's now labeled far right, despite whatever the actual positions of the party are. This is true everywhere in Europe. Okay? Anytime you have a party like the Meloni's party in Italy and it wins, it's a far right party. Gerd Wilder's is now far right. Viktor Orban is far right. The Vox party in Spain is far right. National Rally is far right. Yukype, the Independent Party in the UK is far right. Far right. Just means not a sort of moderately squishily, slightly right of center European party. Anything to the right of that is now the far right party. Bernier said, listen to me, this reality is here to stay. It won't disappear. By the magic of emotion of censure, Macron's options for resolving the deadlock are narrowing. The President can't dissolve the national assembly and call for new elections until July. Instead, he can allow Barnier to remain in office in a caretaker capacity to pass measures that would effectively extend this year's budget into the early months of 2025, which would avoid a government shutdown. He can also appoint a new prime minister who could either pass the extension or scramble to pass a full budget by the end of the year. French stocks are falling. Marine Le Pen said she was prepared to vote in favor of a budget extension, but she said, quote, this budget takes the French people hostage. The no confidence vote delivered a broadside to Macron, who in September rejected a nominee for prime minister from the New Popular Front, a leftist coalition that won the most votes in the snap election. Opponents accused Macron of defying the will of voters. So he didn't please the left, he didn't please the right, and now Barnier is in trouble. In choosing Barnier, Macron relied on an eminence grise from the conservative Lide Republican Party that has similar pro business stance to Macron's ranks, but that fared poorly in the election. So again he's trying to paper over the fact that the right in France is picking up steam. He desperately tried to avoid allying himself with Le Pen, which he certainly could have done. And instead he allied himself with the far left. And it turns out the alligator always eats you. If not, if not last. Maybe first. In this particular case, Le Pen has issued a number of red lines for the budget, including ditching plans to increase electricity taxes, lowering drug reimbursements and delaying inflation linked pension hikes. One of the things that is strange about European politics is that many of the so called far right parties are actually big government spending subsidy parties. They're not necessarily free marketeers. With that said, Macron has been unable to cobble together a coalition to support him for years at this point. And Marine Le Pen is the big winner in all of this, as the Wall Street Journal's opinion page points out. Andrew Hammond writing, he says the country's economic outlook is ugly. France's borrowing costs hit an approximately 12 year high against those of Germany. But the current chaos has more to do with the political weakness of Macron. The trigger for the removal was the budget proposals to try to reduce France's huge fiscal deficit, which has grown under Macron. Attempts to address this, however, have met with huge political opposition from both the left and the right. There's no immediate solution. The European Union is going to face a rough year in 2025. And again, those political problems are stemming from Macron's weakness. It is increasingly Marine Le Pen, an ally of President Elect Trump, who is calling the political shots. It was Le Pen who decided to pull the plug on Barnier's government. One reason she may have decided to roll the political dice is that she faces judgment this spring in another corruption trial. Again, the use of law enforcement all over the world to target people on the right is really an amazing thing. I mean, truly, it's Marine Le Pen in France. It's happening in South Korea, maybe, maybe not. It is happening certainly in Hungary. It is happening in Brazil, it is happening in the United States, it is happening in Israel. If Le Pen were to be found guilty, she could be barred from elected office for up to five years, which would thwart a 2027 election bid. So Le Pen might be trying to force an early presidential poll. But right now, the most likely scenario in France remains that Macron will limp along until 2027, possibly in a period of so called cohabitation with the government, not of his political colors. But maybe he'll resign the same way that Charles de Gaulle did back in 1969. Bottom line is Macron does not represent the French people. That is being made clear each and every day in France, folks. We'll get to more in a second. First, I want to remind you I was actually in Argentina in Buenos Aires yesterday, talking about free markets versus socialism. You can view the whole speech from CPAC Argentina. I think it's a pretty solid disquisition on why free markets matter, why socialism is evil. You can view that over at my Twitter account. All right, guys, Coming up, we'll bring you the updates from South Korea, where after the South Korean president tried to declare martial law, it now appears he's likely to be impeached. If you're not a member, become a member. Use Coach Shapiro checkout for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.